The present invention relates to a use indicator for an electrical device. The present invention enables one to determine whether an electrical device has been turned on at all or for at least a predetermined time. In particular, the present invention enables retailers to quickly assess whether a consumer who has purchased an electronic or electrical device has connected the device to a power supply at all or for at least a predetermined length of time.
Retail stores, and especially large retail stores, such as Home Depot, Wal-Mart, Target, and the like, generally have a consumer-friendly return policy. This policy permits the public to purchase an electrical device/appliance and return the device within a given timeframe, usually 30 days, and receive the purchase price in return. Unfortunately, for the retail stores, this only begins the saga of the returned product. In order to place the returned product back on the shelf, an employee of the retail store must ascertain whether the product is still “new.” Usually the employee will open the package containing the product and make a determination whether to place the product back on the shelf or remove it from the consumer chain. The employee generally inspects the exterior of the packaging and will open it to make sure that all the contents are still in place. Additionally, at least a cursory review of the product is conducted to make sure that the product doesn't contain any scratches or imperfections, or any indication that it has been used, that would indicate the product should not be re-shelved.
Even with all of this review and inspection there is still a concern that a damaged product may be placed back on the store shelves for sale. This is because some consumers use the product for a given time or task and then return it when they no longer need the product and such use has caused damage to an area of the product that is not noticeable during only a cursory review. Therefore, many retail chains instruct their employees to err on the side of caution and discard any product that may seem damaged or used. This is done primarily because a retail store does not want to obtain a reputation that they are selling used products as new, and just as importantly, they don't want a secondary consumer, i.e., the person buying the re-shelved product, to be turned off to their store because after bringing home a product and opening its packaging, the consumer found out that someone had previously used it.
In either case, valuable employee time is consumed analyzing and reviewing returned products. Additionally, the retail store's reputation is at the mercy of their employees reviewing the returned products and making the correct judgment whether to re-shelve or not re-shelve the returned product.
On the other hand, if stores are too aggressive in discarding returned products because they are deemed no longer “new”, many items that are truly unused may be permanently discarded and wind up in a refurbished store. This is because once a store determines that a product is no longer new they are prohibited from selling that product. The store must either return the product to the manufacturer for a rebate or sell the product through an alternate route such as a refurbished store, which sells the product at a lower price and keeps a portion of the proceeds for themselves. In either case, any profit that may have been realized by the sale of the unused product is greatly diminished or eliminated altogether as a result of this course of action.